Will upgrading to 8GB RAM increase my Intel HD3000 graphics memory?

[snaky69]

Cool, would this increase graphics performance?

No. The bottleneck in performance from the Intel 3000HD(and pretty much every graphics card out there) isn't memory.

Memory is simply there to store images and textures before being processed by the graphics processors. The Intel 3000HD's processor sucks, so anymore memory won't do anything at all for you.

 

[2hvy4grvty]

It would improve performance if he got faster memory.

 

[Freyqq]

Only works with the Intel 3000HD, nvidia users are out of luck for this one

yup. Intel graphics reserve part of the regular memory in your computer. Most Nvidia/ATI graphics have their own dedicated memory built into the graphics card.

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You've got it backwards, its vastly slower under Windows, the OpenGL performance on mac is current far ahead of both that and the Linux performance right now.

perhaps, but directx (windows) is faster than opengl (windows/mac) most of the time for gaming, and most games rely on directx. Every game I am aware of will run faster and better in windows on the same machine.

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No. The bottleneck in performance from the Intel 3000HD(and pretty much every graphics card out there) isn't memory.

Memory is simply there to store images and textures before being processed by the graphics processors. The Intel 3000HD's processor sucks, so anymore memory won't do anything at all for you.

Yeah..it's pretty slow compared to nvidia/ati graphics in mbps, so there wouldn't be much improvement. If you are running a 30" monitor and have a lot open, though, it could be helpful with expose/mission control or something.

 

[dsio]

yup. Intel graphics reserve part of the regular memory in your computer. Nvidia/ATI graphics have their own dedicated memory built into the graphics card.

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perhaps, but directx (windows) is faster than opengl (windows/mac) most of the time for gaming, and most games rely on directx. Every game I am aware of will run faster and better in windows on the same machine.

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Yeah..it's pretty slow compared to nvidia/ati graphics in mbps, so there wouldn't be much improvement. If you are running a 30" monitor and have a lot open, though, it could be helpful with expose/mission control or something.

The Nvidia 9400 did not have dedicated memory, it shared the main memory, as did the 320m.

As for the "DirectX is faster than OpenGL" thing, that's just not how it works, they are simply two competing graphics APIs, with John Carmack's entire career being proof that OpenGL is by no means second rate.

In any case its the state of driver tuning that makes the difference in the case of the HD3000, it just happens that the MacOSX drivers have been developed to a greater level than the Windows or Linux drivers, that could change with time but it is what it is.

 

[adb1973]

it 'll improve framerate a tiny bit

For what it's worth... (since it's an old thread)

I've the i7 version of this machine with the HD3000 too and did some testing
Cinebench, Xbench, Geekbench, Heaven 4.0

Basically:
-8GB DDR3 1600 CL 9 memory indeed makes the machine faster, the graphics also, but just a tiny bit, it's hardly noticeable (be sure to reset the SMC and NVRAM after doing the upgrade)

16GB 1333 CL9 makes the machine and the graphics also faster by the way

Cinebench OpenGL results
4GB stock: 11,74 fps 384MB graphics men
8GB 1600: 12,08 fps 512MB graphics mem
16GB 1333: 11,90 fps 512MB graphics mem (it does not get any higher)

So there you have it: a solid 2,9% improvement in framerate 🙂
Tested multiple times b.t.w.

I've read @Intel the max memory speed of the HD3000 is about 1300-1350MHz by the way, so probably putting in extra fast memory doesn't work as expected because something goes wrong with the timings.

I haven't noticed a real difference in FCP X for example when editing HD (which is just a bit too much for this type of mac)

There's a 10% bump in overall memory speed though

If there's someone who tested 1866 or even 2133 RAM in this machine please reply to let us hear if it's stable/not to hot/functions properly (or not)